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This article investigates conflicts in retrospective Facebook groups, i.e., groups created with a particular interest and focus on the past, to analyse how members of these groups understand the past and how they negotiate, resist and challenge each other's notions of the past. The data comes from a netnographic fieldwork within six such retrospective groups. Theoretical inspiration is drawn from Actor-Network-Theory (Harrison 2013, Latour 2005). The analysis thusly focuses on human (the members of the groups) as well as non-human actors (the operative logic of Facebook) and study how these produce associations between the past and the present. An overall result of the study is that the retrospective Facebook groups are not characterised by conflict. Instead, they are produced as places of sanctuary, where associations with the past becomes a basis for a nostalgic feel-good culture. However, the analysis also shows that the sanctuaries build on the production of a discontinuity and a conflict between the past and the present. Using Boym's concept of ruinophilia, as well as Bauman's concept of retrotopia, the article discusses how the conflicted discontinuity between the past and the present produces an us-and-them relationship where group members can come together in a nostalgic as well as a critical care for the world as it (in their perspectives) was supposed to be. The analysis also illustrates how members' use of sources and references becomes a mere stylistic performance of authority, as the operative logic of Facebook not only enables but also constrains group interactions, reducing the members' possibilities of having profound interactions and negotiations based on their memories and notions of the past. The article hereby contributes to the emerging research on digital memories in general, and memory work on Facebook in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the ambitions of international and national policy makers to digitalize the cultural heritage sector, a growing research field that deals with digitalization and cultural heritage has emerged. However, it has been argued that too much focus has been placed on technology and information policy issues and that research on how to achieve administrative effectiveness and preservation has taken precedence over studies of different actors' engagement, participation and access to cultural heritage. Previous studies have also tended to problematize the "hows" rather than the "whys" of processes associated with digital heritage and digitalization. In addition, research has shown that collections documenting minorities and marginalized groups have been excluded from national strategies concerning the digitalization of cultural heritage. Therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate why and under what conditions digital heritage about and with migrants has been initiated, created and curated. We study the motives and the roles of different stakeholders in the digitization and patrimonialization processes of one collection containing life stories from migrants. Furthermore, in the article we understand stakeholders not only as decision makers, owners or managers, but also as any person or organization that feels affected by whatever happens to the object or piece defined as heritage. Consequently, a central element in the methodology of this research was the interviews conducted with crucial actors in relation to their engagements with the studied collection. During the interviews, we paid specific attention to the different motives of the involved stakeholders and why it was important to them that the collection was created and digitized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the challenge of collecting the heritage of present-day global protest movements, which are shaped and influenced by digital practices. In focus of the analysis are the mass-street demonstrations which took place in cities all over Poland in 2020 and 2021 to denounce the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal imposing a near-total ban on abortion (the "women's rebellion"). Considered as the largest social protests since the fall of communism in 1989, they have engendered several spontaneous documenting and collecting initiatives. The aims and outcomes of such projects, launched by Polish museums, NGOs, artistic collectives, etc. will be juxtaposed in this article with similar ventures aimed at collecting and archiving the global social movements of the twenty-first century and examined as the first Polish examples of Rapid Response Collecting (RRC). This article, by analysing the recent RRC projects of the 2020/21 protests against the abortion ban in Poland, aims to inscribe them in the current discussions on the preservation of digital heritage. While pointing out definitional issues with digital heritage, my analysis also demonstrates the need to integrate and interrelate digital heritage within the wider framework of cultural heritage, its preservation and institutionalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts such as wars, rebellions and revolutions often give rise to songs that pass on from one generation to another. This applies also to the bloody 1918 Finnish Civil War, which led to the death of nearly 37 000 people (about 1% of the population), of whom the majority 27 000 belonged to the defeated, the Reds, and affected Finnish society on every level and in long-lasting ways, some of which can still be acknowledged today. For decades after the war official and public commemoration of the war dead applied only to the winners, the Whites, whereas the Reds were forced to mourn and honour their dead in the private sphere. On both sides, songs were first a popular way of keeping up spirits and then after the war to commemorate the war. These songs were sung at funerals, parades as well as to mock the enemy. Today some of these songs as well as new ones on the topic are still popular and circulate in various versions on YouTube and other social media sites. These music videos are often remixes of original footage and photos used together with images from other sources. The most popular videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. In this article, we explore the digital heritage of the 1918 Finnish Civil War by giving first an overview of the musical legacy of the war and then analyse how and why this musical legacy continues to flourish on YouTube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, massive digitisation of cultural heritage (CH) assets has become a focus of European programmes and initiatives. Among CH settings, attention is reserved to the immense and precious museum collections, whose digital 3D reproduction can support broader non-invasive analyses and stimulate the realisation of more attractive and interactive exhibitions. The reconstruction pipeline typically includes numerous processing steps when passive techniques are selected to deal with object digitisation. This article presents some insights on critical operations, which, based on our experience, can rule the quality of the final models and the reconstruction times for delivering 3D heritage results, while boosting the sustainability of digital cultural contents. The depth of field (DoF) problem is explored in the acquisition phase when surveying medium and small-sized objects. Techniques for deblurring images and masking object backgrounds are examined relative to the pre-processing stage. Some point cloud denoising and mesh simplification procedures are analysed in data post-processing. Hints on physically-based rendering (PBR) materials are also presented as closing operations of the reconstruction pipeline. This paper explores these processes mainly through experiments, providing a practical guide, tricks, and suggestions when tackling museum digitisation projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free hosting services have contributed to the development of the Internet or even acted as a catalyst thereof. This paper aims to answer the questions of what free hosting services represent for Internet users and why initiatives exist to archive content published on free servers. The empirical part of this study attempts to verify whether websites on free servers were designed in an archaic way, which could justify their discontinuation. Initiatives to preserve the content of vanishing web hosting sites are characterized based on a review of various source materials, including the academic literature and Internet resources. This empirical study involved 168 archaic websites, which were analyzed in three dimensions. Marketing components and design were assessed as well. Each assessment dimension was assigned diagnostic variables. The values of the diagnostic variables were standardized using zero unitarization. It was found that the owners of discontinued servers were not interested in creating and maintaining archives. Hence, numerous grassroots initiatives have emerged to salvage their content, although enthusiasm among the archive community seems to have dwindled. Many grassroots archives are available, but a considerable number are no longer supported. In this context, this paper proposes the term 'vanishing hosting'. It provides a nostalgic and sentimental perspective on the termination of free hosting services. The authors noted that free hosting services have largely lost their past import. It is demonstrated that free servers traditionally hosted archaic websites, which justified their deletion from a business perspective. Moreover, the paper presents an outline of a method to revitalize the tourism sector based on changes brought about by global technology to the digital ecosystem. It is proposed that changes in search engine algorithms vicariously contribute to the revitalization of the tourism sector since they often drive the replacement of old websites with newer versions (latest technology and better quality). This leads to the improved online presentation of tourism service portfolios and the general quality of the content in search engine results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Northern Cyprus, where there is a great potential for cultural tourism, transforming cultural heritage into digital heritage and preserving it, and making it sustainable by conveying it to future generations, are of great importance for the economic development of the island. For the said transformation to be carried out more sustainably and to contribute to cultural tourism, both the knowledge and opinions of those working in the field of tourism and the expectations of the tourists visiting the island are important. In this context, data were collected from both sides through the questions prepared by the researchers. In the collection of data, a semi-structured interview form consisting of nine open-ended questions for tourism professionals and seven open-ended questions for tourists visiting the island was used, four of which were common. The opinions of two experts were taken in the preparation of the interview form, which was created using the existing literature. In the analysis of the obtained data, descriptive analysis was used, while descriptive statistics were employed to quantify the collected data. Based on the research findings, it was concluded that there are important deficiencies in terms of technology, internet, and management when transferring cultural elements to digital media in Northern Cyprus and that the technological infrastructure should be developed first. In addition to the development of technology, organization, planning, and forming legal regulations at the ministerial level is also important. It was also determined in the study that tourists did not want to start and finish their touristic activities in the digital environment in a general sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1980s, Polish schools hardly had access to computers, particularly at the primary and secondary levels. The main reasons were funds and shortage of qualified staff that could handle computer hardware. As a consequence, the youth first came across a computer, how to use it, service hardware, and write programs outside schools in the early 1980s. Often informal groups of hobbyists gathered around a single computer were the seeds of microcomputer clubs, which cropped up in huge numbers in Poland in the 1980s. The objective of the paper is to portray the role of microcomputer clubs in the process of shaping the youth and computer education in the 1980s in Poland compared to other countries. The conclusions are founded on a literature review. The analyzed material included an Internet Archive collection "The Computer Magazine Archives". The content of one of the first Polish computer magazines, Bajtek Magazine was analyzed in detail. It has been demonstrated that the Polish youth of the 1980s first came across a computer mainly outside schools, primarily in microcomputer clubs. It was the root of computer and information technology education in Poland. Moreover, microcomputer clubs were reported to provide education, as well as foster character education, aid socialization, and shape attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay addresses the subject of the automatic colourisation of archival black and white photographs using artificial intelligence. In the context of digitisation, there is an increasing number of collections available. Since in most cases the photographs were taken in black and white due to technical limitations, rather than the artistic choice of the photographer, colourisation is potentially helpful for archivists and anthropologists in decrypting new meaning from archival collections. Colourisation is a process around which several questions revolve, both in terms of the usefulness of colourised photographs and the ethical dimension. This study reviews reasons both for and against colourisation. Research in the field of technology currently concentrates on technical details, with attention focused almost entirely on the process without looking critically at potential utility in other fields. Anthropologists, historians, archivists, and digital humanities researchers could benefit from these automated processes if they were made accessible. The main purpose of this paper is to initiate a debate that will result in an interdisciplinary collaboration between the technical and the humanities fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers the social perception of artificial intelligence (AI) as an essential factor having an impact on the digitization, transfer, and popularization of cultural heritage. The article aims at the theoretical comprehension of the digital ontology and implementation of AI in the context of Russian realia. The research relies on comprehensive analysis based on statistical data, using descriptive and comparative methods. The interdisciplinary approach adopted includes reflexive analysis of both positive and negative consequences of the digitalization process. The article examines the peculiarities of the "digital ontology", deterritorization effect, new actors in the digital process, the effect of digital trust, and opposite views of AI-enthusiasts and AI-alarmists. The article describes objective and subjective reasons for the negative perception of digital artifacts, and states the need to consider the influence of key figures in digital ontology: influencers, stakeholders, and data scientists. The ambivalence of public perception of both artificial intelligence and digital cultural heritage is stated. The research reveals digitization frontiers, which involve three factors: the axiological factor, indicating the need for consistency between a human values system and AI development programs; the subject vector, emphasizing the role of a new type of digital heritage bearers and digital influence actors; ethical factor associated with the need to transform relations with information technologies in order to subordinate them to human reflection and comprehension. The authors conclude that cultural heritage digitization should be aimed at generating a human-centered future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital 3D modelling and visualization technologies have been widely applied to support research in the humanities since the 1980s. Since technological backgrounds, project opportunities, and methodological considerations for application are widely discussed in the literature, one of the next tasks is to validate these techniques within a wider scientific community and establish them in the culture of academic disciplines. This article resulted from a postdoctoral thesis and is intended to provide a comprehensive overview on the use of digital 3D technologies in the humanities with regards to (1) scenarios, user communities, and epistemic challenges; (2) technologies, UX design, and workflows; and (3) framework conditions as legislation, infrastructures, and teaching programs. Although the results are of relevance for 3D modelling in all humanities disciplines, the focus of our studies is on modelling of past architectural and cultural landscape objects via interpretative 3D reconstruction methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments are applying smart discourses to resolve challenges in their jurisdictions. Smart discourses like Smart Infrastructure and Smart Mobility result from convergences of smart city discipline and traditional disciplines to deliver novel computer-led decision-making and tailored services. Over the past decade, these smart discourses have become embedded within local government strategic documents through explicit references and operational initiatives. An emerging smart discourse that local governments can adopt is forming between the smart city discipline and the heritage discipline, subsequently producing the Smart Heritage discourse. This article chronicles an investigation into the strategic relationships between the smart city and heritage disciplines within three Australian local governments. In each local government, the researchers analysed strategic smart city and heritage documents to identify shared themes, distilling the data into generalised findings that identify the state of play for Smart Heritage in these organisations. These findings suggest that Smart Heritage is emerging in local government organisations and could soon materialise in their documents alongside established smart discourses. It also signals that the intersection of heritage and technology is advancing into the policy arena, beyond previous Digital Heritage applications. Planners and policy professionals may have to adjust their thinking to accommodate this new discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biocultural heritage preservation relies on ethnobotanical knowledge and the paleoethnobotanical data used in (re)constructing histories of human–biota interactions. Biocultural heritage, defined as the knowledge and practices of Indigenous and local peoples and their biological relatives, is often guarded information, meant for specific audiences and withheld from other social circles. As such, these forms of heritage and knowledge must also be included in the ongoing data sovereignty discussions and movement. In this paper we share the process and design decisions behind creating an online database for ethnobotanical knowledge and associated paleoethnobotanical data, using a content management system designed to foreground Indigenous and local perspectives. Our main purpose is to suggest that the Mukurtu content management system, originally designed for physical items of cultural importance, be considered as a potential tool for digitizing and ethically circulating biocultural heritage, including paleoethnobotanical resources. With this database, we aim to create access to biocultural heritage and paleoethnobotanical considerations for a variety of audiences while also respecting the protected and sensitive natures of Indigenous and local knowledges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Beijing Siheyuan, a type of Chinese vernacular housing with significant cultural value, have been lost in recent years. Preserving the few remaining has become a necessity, but many contemporary architects lack an understanding of their design principles. Based on a historical analysis deriving from Fengshui theory, the Gongcheng Zuofa Zeli ancient construction manual, and craftsmen's experience, this paper describes a parametric algorithm capable of producing Siheyuan variants within a 4D CAD environment which by transforming the original design principles into an algorithm contributes to an understanding of Siheyuan typology and their preservation. This algorithm was implemented in a virtual scripting environment to generate accurate virtual counterparts of historical or extant Siheyuan houses revealing the tacit computational rules underlying traditional Chinese architecture.

Historic environments represent the evolution of materials and techniques that have been used for the construction these environments over the centuries. Entering into the study of this field entails working not only on the crafts that have constructed these environments but also on the people who made, used, and reinterpreted them by learning about the craftsmen and the idiosyncrasies of the place. The study has adopted several methodologies as reference to examine the material and cultural reality of the rural region of Valencia, Spain. Through the adaptation of international methodologies, researchers have carried out a digital database that compiles and maps out the results of the Local Character Assessment of ten Histotiric Urban Cores by incorporating the historical, architectural, and social values to reinforce the Territorial Heritage Action Plan. One of the critical innovations adopted by this form of assessment is the compulsory integration of tangible and intangible heritage through the active involvement of users and makers. Another innovation is to understand the values behind the dynamism and transformation of historic sites. Hence, this study advances theory and practice on the transmission of knowledge among artisans, researchers, and the population and how contemporary practices help acquire new meanings that overlap the past ones.

Interactive installations in museums usually adopt hybrid technologies that combine physical elements with digital content, and studies so far show that this approach enhances the interest and engagement of visitors compared to non-interactive media or purely digital environments. However, the design of such systems is complicated, as it involves a large number of stakeholders and specialists. Additionally, the functional components need to be carefully orchestrated to deliver a rich user experience. Thus, there is a need for further research on tools and methods that facilitate the process. In this paper we present the design and development of a mixed reality installation for the Museum of Marble Crafts in Tinos island in Greece, which places visitors in the role of the crane operator and they have to complete challenges in a gamified version of the old quarry. The system lets users operate a tangible controller and their actions are executed by digital workers in a rich 3D environment. Our design approach involved iterative prototyping, research and co-design activities. The creative process has been supported by a series of organized workshops. The evaluation results indicate that mixed reality can be a promising medium for rich interactive experiences in museums that combine tangible and intangible heritage.

The advent of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has had and is having a major impact on Indonesian cultural resource management, and on the safeguarding methods of its tangible and intangible cultural heritages. Despite varied levels and visible gaps between rural and urban regions in terms of technology usage, innovative initiatives have been created, which correspond to the needs and expectations of a technology-savvy public. As a starting point, a number of public institutions dealing with tangible cultural heritage (e.g. museums, palaces, temples, World Heritage Sites (WHS)) do use innovative digital tools in order to communicate to various audiences, as well as to enrich visitors’ experience, especially taking into consideration young generations. This paper will firstly examine the role of ICTs in intangible cultural heritage (ICH) (e.g. Batik, Wayang puppet theatre, etc.); secondly, the authors will explain how ICTs can help to communicate and promote the values, history, and significances of ICH products, both for locals and tourists, with the goal of raising awareness on cultural identity. However, the knowledge of ICH still requires contacts with its own communities and is vulnerable, as it can be exposed to excessive cultural commoditization through e-platforms. This study aims at giving an overview and some examples of digital interventions for cultural heritage communication implemented by various stakeholders in Indonesia. In addition, this paper analyses to what extent a participatory approach engaging local communities, academics, private sectors, NGOs and the government, can ensure higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency, hence supporting the conservation of UNESCO tangible/ICH in Indonesia. This paper aims at: (1) presenting the development of digital heritage platforms in Indonesia; (2) providing a grid of analysis of digital heritage knowledge platforms dedicated to UNESCO tangible and ICH in forms of websites and mobile apps. Highlights: • Providing a map of the online presence of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHSs) in Indonesia by analysing 180 webpages in English and Indonesian languages. • Identifying several types of digital heritage websites in Indonesia based on the set of categories. • Classifying a map of 312 mobile apps dealing with UNESCO WHSs and Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Indonesia, which were retrieved from Android and iOS platforms.

Teknologi terkini, seperti fotografi digital, pemindai 3D, dan augmented reality, memberikan alternatif dalam upaya pelestarian situs warisan budaya. Fokus pembahasan dalam artikel ini adalah kelanjutan wacana tentang manfaat pelestarian berbasis digital berdasarkan penerapan pada Proyek Depok Lama. Depok adalah kota yang terletak di Provinsi Jawa Barat yang memiliki beragam jenis bangunan masa kolonial, antara lain permukiman penduduk, gereja, dan jembatan. Namun, studi terbaru menunjukkan hampir 75% bangunan kolonial telah dihancurkan sepanjang satu dasawarsa terakhir akibat aktivitas pembangunan kota dan modernisasi yang cepat. Kami membangun proyek untuk melakukan digitalisasi sejumlah objek warisan budaya di Depok untuk mencegah perusakan lebih lanjut dan membangun informasi tentang pentingnya objek bangunan kolonial kepada publik melalui media digital. Proyek ini merupakan kegiatan multidisiplin yang melibatkan arkeolog, sejarawan, pakar IT, dan masyarakat setempat dalam menciptakan database sistem interaktif mengenai bangunan cagar budaya di Depok. Empat studi dilakukan untuk mengembangkan Proyek Depok Lama, yaitu studi informasi konten, studi perspektif pengguna, konstruksi kerangka desain situs web, dan studi evaluasi. Studi pertama dilakukan untuk mengumpulkan informasi mengenai bangunan bersejarah di Depok Lama. Studi kedua dilakukan untuk menyelidiki presentasi informasi yang disukai oleh pengguna. Studi ketiga berkaitan dengan pengembangan prototipe situs web berdasarkan data dari studi sebelumnya. Studi terakhir adalah untuk mengevaluasi dan meningkatkan prototipe situs web. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa digitalisasi warisan budaya tidak hanya berguna untuk pelestarian tetapi juga mendorong keterlibatan publik dan memfasilitasi materi pengetahuan budaya. New technologies, such as digital photography, 3D scanner, and augmented reality, provide an alternative to preserve heritage sites. The focal point for this article is to continue the discourse on the advantages of digital preservation based on our work in Depok, called Depok Lama Project. Depok is a city located in West Java Province that has many colonial buildings, such as residential settlements, churches, and bridges. However, a recent study shows almost 75% of colonial buildings have been demolished over the last decade due to city development and rapid modernization. We created a project to digitize the cultural heritage in Depok to prevent further destruction and encourage the importance of the buildings to the public through digital media. This project is a multidisciplinary project that involved archaeologists, historians, IT experts, and the local community in creating an interactive system database regarding heritage buildings in Depok. Four studies were carried out to develop the Depok Lama Project, namely content information study, end-user perspective study, website design framework construction, and evaluation study. The first study was used to collect information regarding the historical buildings at the Old Depok. The second study was conducted to investigate the information presentation preferred by the end-users. The third study concerned the development of a website prototype based on data from previous studies. The final study was to evaluate and enhance the website prototype. The results show that the cultural heritage digitization is not only useful for preservation but also for public engagement and facilitate cultural learning.

Chiara ZuanniThis paper aims to examine the values of born-digital heritage. It focuses on the impact on museum and heritage practices of digital data as consti-tuting heritage objects. Digital technologies are now deeply entangled with human communication and social relations. If heritage is socially con-structed in the interactions between humans and objects and places, how do the algorithms that shape human experiences of it affect the production of heritage values? The characteristics of each online platform, from web-sites to social networking sites, influence the way heritage is construct-ed, discussed, and valued in online interactions. This paper will therefore first unpack the construction of heritage knowledge in the digital sphere, by analysing – with the support of posthumanist approaches – the entan-glement of human and technological processes that shape the production of contemporary heritage. Secondly, the paper will explore how big data and algorithms challenge boundaries in the heritage field, such as those between representation and simulation. The paper will question the role of these non-human actors in shaping contemporary heritage production and values. Finally, the paper will discuss how born-digital heritage is ar-chived, analysed, preserved, retrieved and represented in digital collecting projects. The paper will argue that these interactions have consequences both on the production of new social values in relation to heritage arte-facts and on the construction of new 21st century heritage. By exploring the application of posthumanism to digital heritage, this paper will consider emerging borders within cultural and digital heritage, and how heritage values and practices are affected by these developments.

Abstract Trees belong to humanity’s heritage, but they are more than that. Their loss, through catastrophic fires or under business-as-usual, is devastating to many forms of life. Moved by this fact, we begin with an assertion that heritage can have an active role in the design of future places. Written from within the field of architecture, this article focuses on structures that house life. Habitat features of trees and artificial replacement habitats for arboreal wildlife serve as concrete examples. Designs of such habitats need to reflect behaviours, traditions and cultures of birds, bats, and other animals. Our narrative highlights the nonhuman aspect of heritage, seeking to understand how nonhuman stakeholders can act as users and consumers of heritage and not only as its constituents. Our working definition states that more-than-human heritage encompasses tangible and intangible outcomes of historical processes that are of value to human as well as nonhuman stakeholders. From this basis, the article asks how the established notions of heritage can extend to include nonhuman concerns, artefacts, behaviours and cultures. As a possible answer to this question, the hypothesis tested here is that digital information can (1) contribute to the preservation of more-than-human heritage; and (2) illuminate its characteristics for future study and use. This article assesses the potential of three imaging technologies and considers the resulting data within the conceptual framework of more-than-human heritage, illuminating some of its concrete aspects and challenges.

As part of the culturally focused direction of travel surrounding Gothenburg's fourth centenary, several departments of the municipality have collaborated to produce a virtual model of Gothenburg as it was in the seventeenth century, first presented to the public in 2017. This case study analyses the city's approaches to displaying and vitalising the model, the role of the built environment as a cultural backdrop, and the efficacy of cultural transmission within this digital context. Principally, this analysis offers a critical response to the depiction of the city's cultural heritage, but it also aims to examine the wider role of digital visualisation in contemporary heritage discourse. Characterising the realisation of the model's current iteration as a stepping stone for further development, potential points of departure for creativity and meaning-making within the model itself and in a broader context are made to inform future heritage practices in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the application of serious games to cultural heritage. Through an overview of the growing importance of gamification in promoting cultural sites and museum collections, the research highlights the changing practices of cultural institutions, which are increasingly involved in producing serious games, considering them as strategic digital marketing tools to promote cultural heritage and tourism in addition to their traditional "learning by playing" function. The article explores a case study, namely Mi Rasna, a game on the Etruscan society realized in partnership with several Italian cultural institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing digitization and the emergence of new data-sharing practices change our understanding of how cultural heritage is defined, collected, and exhibited. We must pay particular attention to the ways in which digital interfaces curate history. Crowdsourcing, social media, linked open data, and other open science practices challenge the current practices of cultural heritage institutions, owing to the established structures between and within them and the character of the networked publics involved. However, such challenges also open new opportunities for wider negotiations of cultural heritage and rethinking what cultural heritage institutions and practices are. This special issue brings together scholars from different disciplines to provide critically and empirically grounded perspectives on the datafication of cultural heritage institutions' exhibition and collection practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The aim of the questionnaire survey was to map the awareness of the academic sphere about the existence and use of web archives and find out how researchers would like to use archival data in their research. The conclusions of the research study will serve as a basis for designing further research activities of the National Library of the Czech Republic. Design/Methodology/Approach - In order to find out the needs of users of web archives the method of quantitative questionnaire was chosen. The process of making the questionnaire was preceded by research that focuses on survey of user needs abroad and definition of the target group. The survey included scientists experienced with web archives as well as those who have not participated in a similar project. The questions were structured into several areas focused on who the respondents are and what is their knowledge about web archives. We also asked about the way and intention of using the web archive and about data literacy. With the request to distribute the questionnaire to the widest possible range of respondents from the academic sphere, universities and colleges, public research institutions, regional and scientific libraries and members libraries of the Association of university libraries were targeted. All of the 146 responses were processed and evaluated. Results - The study summarizes the results of a unique survey in the Czech environment, places them in the context of foreign research on the needs of web archive users and suggests further possibilities for research on these archival data. It summarizes general information about the respondents, their awareness of web archives and its use as well as about experiences working with archive data and about requirements for the Czech Webarchive. Originality/Value - The survey of user needs in the form of an extensive questionnaire survey happened for the first time in the Czech environment and thus made it possible to map the use of web archives. Although the web archive of the National Library of the Czech Republic continuously deals with how it can provide its data and services to users within the framework of legislation, the results of the questionnaire survey provided a unique treasure for the further development of services and functionalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Ancient manuscripts are part of many collections belonging to historic libraries and museums: due to their fragile nature and to the difficulties to display most of their contents during exhibitions, their study is often complicated for scholars who also need generally special permissions to examine them, mostly for a limited time window. Beginning from these premises, this paper introduces the outcomes of the digital replication and presentation of three manuscripts related to Dante's Divine Comedy, as proposed on a real exhibition, "Dall'Alma Mater al Mondo. Dante at the University of Bologna", held in 2021. Some of the principles related to the production of their replicas and the fruition of their contents through dedicated applications targeted to visitors and scholars are presented, with care to the reproduction of details such as the ability to explore 3D replicas of detailed elected pages or to browse many of them on dedicated touch screens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the inclusion of the digital in the suite of on-site interpretation experiences now available at many war memorials, long-standing tensions between education, commemoration and tourism are amplified. At the same time, new regimes of bodily experience shaped by the interaction of architectural and digital technologies, evolving expectations of behaviour and engagement, and challenges to curatorial voices have come to the fore. This paper examines these issues at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne by exploring the interaction between various "technologies of remembrance": the active participation of the material world in eliciting remembrance. We argue that these technologies, aiming to "teach memory," are an attempt to position the visitor as a "witness": an active participant in the ongoing work of memory, and possibly create spaces for critique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to generate and validate a workflow that allows us to print physical twins (models) from digital twins obtained from unique buildings of our architectural heritage. These physical twins will guarantee the preservation and diffusion of the cultural asset, and will promote new pedagogical ways to spread the heritage. In addition, these physical cufflinks are an interesting tool to guarantee universal accessibility through low-cost and rapid distribution typological models. We can overcome physical barriers and reach many more users, regardless of their economic, physical, or location conditions. To obtain this workflow, digital twins of architectural elements of high cultural value obtained by photogrammetry or terrestrial laser scanner will be used. The digital twin will be optimized through different platforms, and an optimized exchange file will be generated for its dissemination and printing. A digital platform will be proposed that guarantees the free distribution of these digital twins to any user. Finally, the physical twins will be obtained. For the development of this work, we have chosen to use 3D resin printers with SLA technology (selective laser exposure to light by laser) due to their performance and high quality in the models obtained.

In recent years, UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and funding bodies have been increasingly championing the merits of co-production between academic researchers and non-HEIs, including community groups. However, these undertakings are often more complex than we are led to believe and the issues encountered are frequently downplayed in published outputs. In this article we review a selection of recent projects in which digital technologies have been used in heritage-led public engagement, including two of our own related projects at Park Hill flats in Sheffield. Digital technologies are the latest means by which HEIs are seeking to engage with the public, but it is becoming clear that there are significant impediments to undertaking this successfully. These include the short-term nature of the funding, the difficulties of maintaining digital outputs over time, and managing community expectation of what can be achieved in the time, and with the funding, available, alongside variable levels of familiarity with, and interest in, digital platforms by the public. Funding schemes often prioritise new consultation activities, and co-production with communities, over making use of archival community engagement materials. We suggest that academic engagement with the public needs to be sensitive to these issues, and to recognise that valuable digital heritage projects can emerge from diverse approaches to co-production.

We present four types of neural language models trained on a large historical dataset of books in English, published between 1760 and 1900, and comprised of ≈5.1 billion tokens. The language model architectures include word type embeddings (word2vec and fastText) and contextualized models (BERT and Flair). For each architecture, we trained a model instance using the whole dataset. Additionally, we trained separate instances on text published before 1850 for the type embeddings, and four instances considering different time slices for BERT. Our models have already been used in various downstream tasks where they consistently improved performance. In this paper, we describe how the models have been created and outline their reuse potential.

This introduction to the special issue "Photographic Digital Heritage in Cultural Conflicts" calls for the development of research into the various local and global political circumstances that have influenced the absorption of historical photographs into the realm of digital heritage, alongside the study of the digital photographic heritagization practices triggered by this very process. Opening with an exploration of the emergence of "the heritage phenomenon", it analyses how photography, heritage, and the political arena have become interlocked. The discussion then considers how historical photographs, digital heritage and cultural conflicts have subsequently also become entangled since the post-Cold War rising prevalence of digital technology, global interconnectedness and liberal democracy. These related conditions, it is suggested, have informed the growing digital heritagization of historical photographs and the methods used for their digitization, safeguarding and dissemination. Before introducing the individual contributions to the issue, the text therefore argues that the confluence of historical photographs and digital heritage must not be understood as a mere response to technological progress but as an articulation of politically-charged aspirations to capitalize on the common association of photographs with the past, to administer approaches to differing cultural values in a time of imposing liberal-democratic politics of consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 1942, the Director of British Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Godfrey made a public appeal via the BBC Radio. Godfrey requested listeners to send in holiday photographs and postcards of Europe, particularly places of potential military interest. Over 80,000 people responded with holiday snaps forming a comprehensive library that by 1944 totaled ten million images. Relevant photographs garnered from the public for Operation Overlord were incorporated into military briefing materials, along with maps and zero-elevation aerial photographs, then issued to assault troops in preparation for the invasion of France in June 1944. While the material was largely returned to the British public, over 750,000 images were reproduced and remain in British archives. Over seventy years later, German photographer Simon Menner accessed the Imperial War Museum archive to digitize part of the collection for a photographic project that was not fully realized. This article considers Menner's engagement with these records as a means by which this obscure national achievement has come to light beyond military history research. It also foregrounds the tension between political conflict surrounding digitization of declassified state and vernacular material, and Menner's photographic intervention as a protagonist in the ongoing efforts to access formerly secret or confidential government material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present the use of 3D models and augmented reality (AR) to study and communicate architectural and urban values and, therefore, favor the development of dedicated forms of "smart heritage". The study rises from a reflection on the concept of "heritage", as defined in the international documents, intended as an evolving idea that puts together tangible and intangible aspects. Moreover, digital technologies favor "phygital" applications where the digital dimension support the traditional ones. In this way, AR allows the superimposition of multimedia information to heritage, respecting the historical matter of the artefacts, and supporting a "smart heritage" application. In particular, mobile AR, with real-time and ubiquitous visualizations, offers the opportunity to show past urban and architectural configurations to investigate and describe the transformations that have led to the current configuration, and consequently highlighting the present historical and architectural values of the buildings. Two case studies are presented: the square of St. Basilio Monastery, with its historical transformations, and the Basilica of Collemaggio, a pivotal building in the rites of "Perdonanza Celestiniana". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor data acquisition from low-cost cameras, such as low-resolution depth maps or high level of noise or point clouds generated with insufficient information from an object, limits the use of such cameras for heritage artifacts 3D reconstruction. This work proposes to improve this depth low-cost acquisition by using a new approach based on the Super-Resolution technique. The proposed approach has been applied to several artifacts of the Federal University of Bahia Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE/UFBA). As shown in the results, our approach improved the quality of point clouds generated from tested heritage artifacts. Results indicate that whenever artifact geometry is gained via our method there is actual reconstruction of detail or accuracy improvements, whereas a reduction in number of points of the clouds, if any, would indicate the removal of inconsistencies or noise from the input data without loss of detail.

Digital heritage obtained by real and tangible heritage, is formed by computer material, such as images through passive systems or active systems, or other graphic material, such as blueprints. These computer materials possess and must preserve the same cultural, historical, aesthetic, scientific or ethnologic value as the buildings they come from. Traditional means of architectural heritage diffusion consisted of brochures, books, articles in scientific journals or conference papers. In recent years, those diffusion means have changed. The increasing evolution of new technologies, novel computer tool, or Internet has made new means of dissemination arise. These new methods allow an observer to contemplate monuments from anywhere around the world, with no time or space restrictions. These novel methodologies make it possible, at times, to be introduced virtually in buildings as if being physically inside them. With these new means, geographical and physical limits disappear.The aim of this article is to show the results obtained after disseminating some digital materials obtained from the study of architectural heritage on social networks, in order to value them and allow universal access to them.DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.23.2019.4

Aim of the paper is to reflect on the visual relationships between the digital heritage from real contents and its tangible reference. First of all the paper analyses the evolution of the Culture in relation to the growth of digital technologies. Then it highlights the role of visual perception and communication. Consequently, it focuses on the nature and characteristics of digital models, intended as complex meta-systems of information. Finally, it points out the multiple dimensions of tangible and digital realities, and how advanced visualizations favour a reciprocal re-mediation.

The 3D reconstruction of real-world heritage objects using either a laser scanner or 3D modelling software is typically expensive and requires a high level of expertise. Image-based 3D modelling software, on the other hand, offers a cheaper alternative, which can handle this task with relative ease. There also exists free and open source (FOSS) software, with the potential to deliver quality data for heritage documentation purposes. However, contemporary academic discourse seldom presents survey-based feature lists or a critical inspection of potential production pipelines, nor typically provides direction and guidance for non-experts who are interested in learning, developing and sharing 3D content on a restricted budget. To address the above issues, a set of FOSS were studied based on their offered features, workflow, 3D processing time and accuracy. Two datasets have been used to compare and evaluate the FOSS applications based on the point clouds they produced. The average deviation to ground truth data produced by a commercial software application (Metashape, formerly called PhotoScan) was used and measured with CloudCompare software. 3D reconstructions generated from FOSS produce promising results, with significant accuracy, and are easy to use. We believe this investigation will help non-expert users to understand the photogrammetry and select the most suitable software for producing image-based 3D models at low cost for visualisation and presentation purposes.